ACES ON BRIDGE

Our final avoidance-based deal shows how an overall strategy can affect the correct play in a single suit.

South opts for the simple if sporting jump to three notrump over North’s one-club opening. West leads a fourthhighest spade three to dummy’s queen, and declarer can see that if East gets in too soon, he may set up spades for West. Declarer likely will lose the lead twice in the key suit, so he should initially attempt to keep East off play if he can. Playing on diamonds is unlikely to work; in any event, declarer would need a trick from the club suit eventually. So, he might as well attack clubs rather than risk East getting in prematurely with a diamond. It would be normal to lead a club to the jack or the nine, but that would probably see the contract fail as the cards lie. Strangely, though, declarer is not too concerned about losing an extra club trick if West has ace-queen-low, as long as he can keep East off lead in the early play.

The best line is to cross to the heart queen and follow with a club to the king. When it holds, declarer leads a low club from dummy. Now, after winning his ace perforce, West cannot effectively continue spades. A heart shift is best, but South wins in dummy and sets up clubs, coming to three clubs, three hearts, two spades and one diamond trick.

Note that with spades known to be 5-4, if the club queen and ace were switched, declarer could not succeed, even by leading to the club jack initially.